


Snapshots

by Piff



Series: Harry Potter and the Cursed Children [4]
Category: Creepypasta - Fandom, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Blood, Fanart, Gen, Hurricane Toby, VIVA LA TOBY!, bites, body parts, happy murder baby
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-04
Updated: 2019-04-28
Packaged: 2019-06-05 02:16:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 7,247
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15160223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Piff/pseuds/Piff
Summary: All the small little pieces that don't fit into the main Creepy Potter story, but I liked too much to throw away.They'll involve Boy at home with his family, Harry at school, the creepy family themselves... it'll be a pretty random collection. I'll be labeling the snapshots that need to be read after a certain point of time to be helpful :D





	1. Fingerpaint

**Author's Note:**

> Little bitty baby likes to fingerpaint while the adults make dinner.
> 
> Prob should read at least the first chapter or two of the main fic, Creepy Potter to avoid confusion.

One of Boy’s earliest memories was sitting under the giant kitchen table and finger-painting on the floor. Blood kept dripping over the edge of the table and it was such a nice, pretty color that Boy couldn’t help himself. It was just a bunch of childish doodles, stick figures and misshapen dogs and flowers but he was having fun.

Toby, cackling each time, kept passing him severed fingers from the corpse to use.

“All I’m saying is that kids, especially the little ones, need a schedule. If you would read the books I brought back for you, you’d know this!”

“I’m not going to read any fucking parenting books!”

Boy hummed quietly to himself as he named each figure with a little sign above their head. He couldn’t read yet, but he could make up his own marks for now. Slender was in the middle of the group of course, a really tall and skinny figure with long lines floating off of him. His mark was the best, it was an X and a O and was everywhere in the castle. 

“He needs to feel secure! You can't just ignore his social and psychological needs!”

Boy practiced the sigil a few more times, trying to get it perfect. He soon noticed that the shadows around him were getting wiggly, and as he went to draw the sign one more time a piece of shadow actually reached out and grasped his wrist in a cold tendril.

“He’s plenty socialized! Even fucking Liu plays with him!”

“That’s not.. It’s like talking to a wall. A burnt brick wall.”

Boy giggled at the shadow, and grasped it back to do an awkward ‘hand’ shake.

Later, he’d come to understand that what he’d been doing was the equivalent of pestering Slender with “hey look here hey come see hey HEY HEY HEY.” Since, you know, the sigil was meant to get his attention and all. 

At the moment though Boy was just happy to know the tall monster man was nearby. 

“I’m putting my foot down. You can't just feed a baby cookies and hot dogs all day and expect him to stay healthy. He needs vegetables and vitamins unless you want to stunt his growth or give him rickets.”

“I don't fucking care what you want to do, just don't expect me to sit down with you fuckers for every damn meal!”

There was a thud and a grunt and when Boy turned his head he could see Jeff’s sneakers had left the floor by a few inches. Boy looked up at the underside of the table curiously. 

In a much lower tone- “so help me, if you teach him to be as much as an asshole as you are, I’ll gut you. Understand?”

“...yeah.”

Toby ducked under the table now. “Hey ducky Duck. Whatcha doing? Let’s go play with Benny while these two talk it out.” 

“Bye-bye,” the toddler told the shadowy tendrils as Toby pulled him out from under the table and carried him off. He could see Jeff and Eyeless over Toby’s shoulder, Eyeless had Jeff by the collar of his hoody and had pulled him partly over the table so they could talk nose to nose. 

“Bye-bye?”

Jeff waved absently with his bloody knife. Eyeless turned and pointed a clawed finger at Toby. “No more sweets!”

“Yup yup, no sweets. Just gunna go see what BEN’s doing.” He patted the baby on the back as he scuttled down the hallway. “No one needs to hear Mommy and Daddy fighting, eh midget? Don’t worry, I got your back.”

Boy looked at him thoughtfully before leaning in close to plant a kiss on Toby’s cheek.

“Awwww-OW! Did you just bite me?! No biting! Bad baby! Bad!”

“You’re seriously telling him that?” Liu shook his head and took the toddler out of Toby’s arms.

Toby rubbed at his cheek and the tiny red tooth marks. “Not even four and he’s already trying to eat people! And Eyeless says _Jeff_ is the bad influence.”

Liu rolled his eyes. “There isn't a single person in this castle who can say they’re a good influence.” 

“Bah. Take your evil logic and leave!”

“Fine.” Liu took the baby with him. 

Toby raised a finger to argue then realized he didn’t want to get bit again. By the mini-Jeff. “Yeah that’s right, walk away! Curse you and your sensible ideas!”

In the next round of Pass the Baby, Liu left the boy with BEN in the game room. BEN had him for a bit, and even tried to teach him how to use a game controller, but Jeff claimed him before long. 

“Oi, naptime brat.”

“Since when do we do a naptime?” BEN wondered, even as he passed the baby over the back of the couch.

“Since Eyeless fucking said so.”

“Ah..”

“Shut the fuck up BEN.”


	2. Pacing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jeff is getting anxious and Toby knows how to fix it. Temporarily.
> 
> Sometime while Boy is away at school in part 1, probably after Christmas break.

Jeff was pacing again. 

He was prowling around the castle, looking through the rooms and tracking something only he could sense. 

Toby checked his goggles and made sure his hatchets were securely attached to his belt before bringing out the big guns. 

“MOTHER FUCKER!” 

Jeff went staggering forward with flailing arms as Toby tackled him, taking a running jump onto his back and latching on with the determination of a hungry octopus. 

“TALLY HO!”

Too many guns had been brought- Jeff face-planted onto the floor and Toby mourned his loss of such a noble steed. Sitting on Jeff’s back, Toby prodded at the back of the teen’s head with a finger.

“Wakey wakey- ACK!”

Jeff had rolled over and sent Toby tumbling, a fist lashing out to slug poor Toby in the shoulder. 

“What the fuck Toby?!”

Toby continued his tumble all the way around ‘till he could scramble up to his feet and run . “I HAVE NO REGRETS! VIVA LA TOBY!”

“GET BACK HERE YOU ASSHOLE!”

And the chase was on! Wasn’t Toby just the best distraction? He couldn’t just watch Jeff mope his way through the next few months, so let the games begin!

Toby kept a close ear on the sound of Jeff chasing him through the hallway, leading the way to the ground floor by jumping the banister. Know why they always needed to find a new couch? Cause of Toby. It was a 15 foot drop from the top of the stairs to the cushions and WHOOMP! went a cloud of dust. 

“Benny!”

“No.”

“I was just saying hi,” Toby pouted. “Time to go!” He booked it for the door as Jeff hit the bottom of the stairs. “Byeeee!”

Eyeless was in the kitchen, flattening himself against the fridge as Toby ran though. Toby swiped the bottle of water from his hands as he blasted by. Out the back door, leap the off the porch, sprint for the trees.. Ooo Masky!

“Hey baby! Call me!” with his thumb and pinkie held up to his face. “Later!”

It was a good night. Could have been better, but since he managed to not get stabbed AND had distracted Jeff, it was a good one nonetheless!


	3. Oldest to Youngest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the first year, or during a break. 
> 
> Boy writes a list of his brothers in an attempt to keep his facts consistent.
> 
> ...not really a snapshot scene, but it seemed a good idea to write down who was what age.

Boy chewed on the end of his pencil thoughtfully. He needed to keep his story straight.

He had eight brothers. Laughing Jack was the eldest in age....? Maybe. Probably. No one could figure out exactly how old he was, just that it was somewhere between several decades and several centuries. Having never been human to begin with, Laughing Jack himself didn’t know, just that he had been around for a while.

Masky and Hoody were the eldest in proxy-ism. Technically they should have been… what… in their thirties? Boy almost felt bad for them, their physical forms kept fluctuating between 15 and 25 depending on what was going on back home with their stories and… fans.

His brothers had fans, how weird was that? BEN kept an eye on the forums in case things went weird. Weirder.

Toby was seventeen. He was seventeen last year, he’d be seventeen next year, he was seventeen. Even had it scribbled down his arm in various pen colors and languages. Boy had never asked about the fixation on seventeen, but it seemed important to Toby.

Asking who was older, Liu or Jeff, led to some fascinating arguments. Jeff swore he was the elder brother, always had been. Liu just scoffed. He was taller and more mature, obviously he had been born first. After the fourth screaming match and broken furniture the rest of the group held a vote and declared the pair were twins. Full stop. No more. 

Since Jeff always started the story “A few years ago…” when the main character had been thirteen, the Killer was comfortably frozen at sixteen. Refusing to budge meant Liu was also sixteen even if he did look a teensy bit older... 

BEN was dead, and a ghost, and lived in the T.V. but Boy thought he looked pretty much like an average teenager with pointy ears. Excluding Boy, BEN was the shortest so probably the youngest…? Boy labeled him at a tentative thirteen.

Lastly, there was Eyeless. Calm, collected, methodical Eyeless who out of everyone should hold the title of Eldest Brother because he was the one who ran the household. But Laff and Masky were taller and Masky was the group leader.. 

Actually, considering what L.J. and Jeff got up to behind doors that really, really should be fucking locked, perhaps he should be a cousin instead of a brother. Or a friend of the family. Boy considered the idea for a moment and shook his head- at this point it would hurt L’s feelings to stop calling him a brother. Incest or no incest. 

Laff, Masky, and Eyeless could battle it out for Oldest Brother. If they were all adopted, then they could all be on the same level right? Hoody was between them and Toby, then came Jeff and Liu, then BEN. 

Boy looked over his list and nodded. It would work for now. Not like Neville was going to be visiting the castle, but it would help Boy keep things straight in his head. Boy wanted to talk about his brothers, even if he had to stick to the bland, nice bits. 

An idea struck him. He carefully crossed out the name ‘Eyeless’ and wrote in ‘Ellis’ instead. He couldn’t remember if Masky was Brian or Tim but that wouldn’t matter, they always worked together anyways. Laff was an acceptable name, that could stay.


	4. Christmas Wishes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shortly after Boy is adopted into the family, Toby wants to know something important.

Toby perched himself on the footboard of the bed like a gargoyle, balanced on the balls of his feet and arms folded over his knees. It had taken him a while to hunt down his target; who on earth took a nap in the middle of the night? Crazy people, that’s who!

“Pssst, Masky!”

He was for the most part ignored. Masky sound asleep and sprawled out over the bed like a starfish. A big starfish. The biggest starfish in the world. How big did starfish get?

“Hey Masky. Mask. Maskers. Masketti. Maskovitch. Ma-”

“ _What_ Toby?”

“I got a question. About the baby.”

“And?”

“If we’re keeping him, and he’s ours forever, no take backs, what're we doing about Christmas?”

Masky lifted his head to squint up at him. Actual mask removed and hooked over the headboard, Toby could see the frown rather than infer it from his tone.

“Same thing we always do Pinky. Bitch about the cold weather and kill people.”

“Yes! But no. I mean, what're we doing about Santa Claus and reindeer and presents. We’re doing presents right? Nothing better than a pile of presents on Christmas morning! But who’s bringing the presents? Elf on the shelf is creepy as fuck, let’s skip that.”

“Toby.”

“If he believes in Santa, will the fat man actually visit? Is there a Santa Claus?”

“Toby.”

“Krampus is way cooler but he’s more of a scare tactic than a gift giver.”

Masky lifted a foot and kicked Toby in the kneecap. Not very hard but enough to knock him off balance and send him flailing to the floor. 

Toby made a very bad Gargoyle.

Goggles gone crooked across his face, Toby sat up and peered over the foot of the bed at the eldest Proxy. “So…. Santa?”

“What did Eyeless say? Or Jeff? They’re in charge of the rugrat.”

“Haven't asked yet cause I might need backup if they say no! How do you say no to Santa? Everyone loves Santa! Those Santa-hating bastards.. We should stake them.”

Masky rubbed a hand over his face. “For fuck’s sake Toby…”

Toby clambered up onto the bed and crawled up the mattress to flop down beside Maskless Masky. “I’m just saying, Santa is important to little kids. Don’t you remember Santa?”

“What do I have to agree to to make you go away?”

Toby hmmmed thoughtfully.


	5. Library Tantrum

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This was supposed to happen between chapter 10 and 11 of Book 2. It started off pretty good I thought, but then I got stuck and eventually had to abandon the idea.
> 
> After Justin Finch-Fletchley gets petrified, Draco decides to make a snarky comment about Harry attacking his own house.

Harry, in a spectacular display of nurture over nature, threw a large chair at the most infuriating person he’d come to know in Hogwarts. 

Neville, moving more on instinct than rational thought, threw himself over the table and latched onto Harry before the boy could stab Draco in the eye with his wand. “Harry! Don’t! It won’t be worth it!” and hung on for dear life because he knew that if he let go, Harry would literally kill Draco.

Harry’s arms had gotten pinned to his sides but that didn’t mean he didn’t have other ways to get his point across. Wandless, wordless magic sent Draco flying backwards across the room to slam into a bookcase. A tiny part of Neville’s mind pointed out that Harry was hissing, which could have been a spell, so it was only potentially wordless.

Neville told that part to shut the fuck up and concentrate on not letting Harry destroy the room.

“Justin’s only petrified, not dead! He’ll be back on his feet really soon and if you get expelled then Draco will win! Don't let Draco win! He’s an asshole and a spoiled brat and you can do better!”

Looking pale but determined, Ernie put himself between Harry and his line of sight to where Draco sat on the floor surrounded by fallen books. “Neville’s right, and we should go back to the Commons, I think Professor Sprout wants to have another house meeting, and if you don’t go she’ll come looking for you!”

Harry strained to see around him but Neville, who sent every prayer and promise he could think of to the deities above, hauled him backwards and towards the door. Later he’d wonder how he’d managed to do that, he knew Harry was stronger than he looked and a lot stronger than Neville, but for now he would just be thankful. Between him and Ernie and Roger and the girls, they managed to get the pissed off Badger out of the library while Madame Pince was shrieking at Draco for knocking the books down.

Harry continued to hiss, until Susan shot him in the face with a stream of water. Harry sputtered to a stop and stared at her, completely offended. 

Hannah started to giggle with a faint hint of hysteria.

Roger coughed to clear his throat. Then coughed again because good god. “You’re.. You’re such a h-hypocrite. Harry.” His nerves screamed 'run away!' but if he distracted Harry long enough then things would be all right. Right? Right.

“ _Excuse me_?” Harry managed to look even more offended as Hannah’s giggles morphed into hiccups.

“Y-you heard me. You get so mad and sulky over us defending you, and then you go around throwing furniture at people who say stupid things. No one actually thinks you would attack your friends.”

“Except the Gryffindors..” Susan muttered.

Neville suddenly realized he was still latched around Harry, pinning his arms to his side. Ernie had backed off, but.. Harry hadn’t tried to shake Neville loose yet and Neville was still too nervous to let go. Harry probably wouldn’t turn around to go back to the library but... ummm... Draco seemed to bring out the worst in Harry.


	6. Sleepy Sleep Sleeping

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alternative opening scene to Chapter 1 of Book 2, which somehow became all about sleep when I wasn't paying attention. Whoops? Ah well.

Human touch was a psychological need because blah blah hormones and blah blah social support and Boy didn’t care about the science behind hugs. He’d been away for nine months surrounded by strangers and slightly less strange strangers and he was NOT acting like a baby so shut the fuck up. 

He heard Jeff grumble, but when he didn’t knock Boy off the bed Boy continued to cuddle up against his back. Sleeping in his tower room all alone right now was just awful. Lonely. So yeah Boy was going to sleep in Jeff’s room tonight. Eyeless was not-sleeping about ten feet away but Jeff was cuddlier. 

Don't… tell him that. It made Jeff cranky.

Boy yawned and pressed his face into the space Jeff’s shoulders. 

He’d been tempted, while at school, to climb into bed with one of his yearmates but something told him it was a bad idea? No one else seemed to have a problem sleeping by themselves. He was going to have to chalk it down as one of those Normie vs Proxy things. Poor suckers. It was nice knowing someone had your back if something happened.

Boy sighed as sleep crept in closer. He was warm and comfortable and relaxed and everything was good now. He was home. 

“Brrrrrush me! Brrrrrush me! Eheehee!”

Boy flailed as the Tattletail shrieked in his ear. He smacked Jeff in the head on accident, the Killer jolting out of sleep himself and falling right off the edge of the bed. Sleeping between Jeff and the wall, Boy was trapped with the purple toy and Toby.

Toby of course being the one holding the Tattletail, crouched on the foot of the bed like a fleshy gargoyle. He was safe for the moment as Jeff fought his way out of the tangled blanket and Boy was too shocked to attack.

“Morning folks! Just a friendly wake up call; it’s a beautiful summer’s night and the moon is full and breakfast will be up soon!”

Hadn’t it been just after dawn a few minutes ago? Boy had slept like a rock.

Seeing Jeff lurch up to his feet, Toby jumped off the bed and fled the room. If he got the Tattletail damaged Boy was going to be _very_ upset with him. Though out of everyone in the castle, only Toby really appreciated how much fun a Tattletail could be so Boy could trust him to protect the toy. 

Boy was wide awake now. And so was Eyeless, sitting on his bed and fully dressed and merely watching.. err.. listening to the show through his blue mask.

“Traitor.”

Eyeless shrugged. “It was funny. And I’ve been banned from the kitchen while Masky and Hoods make breakfast.”

Oatmeal it was then. Masky was so old fashioned. Probably because he was supposed to be in his thirties while forced to look like a teenager thanks to his fans in America. Hoody too, his physical form constantly fluctuating from 15 to 25 depending on how his story was interpreted. 

“Does Toby do this cause Jeff is the only one who will fucking chase him?”

“Pretty much.”


	7. Boy's Portrait

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is currently my favorite thing ever, all thanks to Oktavian on DeviantArt!
> 
> https://www.deviantart.com/0ktavian
> 
> I LOVE MY SCRAWNEY LITTLE HELLION SO MUCH.


	8. A doctor in the house?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Before Hogwarts, when Boy is just a wee lad, his brothers ensure his survival. Sorta.

The Proxies didn’t believe in car-seats or helmets or carpets in the rundown castle, but they did believe in vaccines.

Or rather, Eyeless believed in vaccines and to hell with everyone else.

“He’s a Proxy! What the fuck does he need that for? He’s healthier than any normal fucking kid out there!”

Liu was the one sitting there to actually fill in the paperwork because while Eyeless may be a genius, he was still a blind one. Jeff was there to complain about it.

“We need a real name for him.”

“This is fucking ridiculous!”

“You have the next ten minutes to name your brat before I do it _for_ you.”

“Can we name him Nemo? Please? Pretty please?” at the furthest end of the table from Liu because he couldn’t be trusted to keep his hands to himself.

“Shut the fuck up Toby!”

Standing in the doorway, Boy watched the bickering continue. Eyeless pressed his shoulders back so that he was standing up straight against the doorframe, Eyeless then gouging a mark deep into the wood where the top of Boy’s head drew even. 

“He’s too short for his age.”

“He’s four! He’s supposed to be fucking short!”

“Are you having a tantrum because we’re getting him vaccinated, or because we decided to do it without you?” Masky was curious to know as he shoved Toby off the table. “Knock it off Toby!”

“I’m bored!”

“Go bother Ben in the living room!”

Boy twisted around again to see what the older boys were doing, Toby crawling under the table to lay there in a defeated heap (while tying Liu’s shoelaces together). Jeff and Liu were having a staring contest which was why Liu hadn’t noticed yet and kicked Toby in the face. Masky was tilted back in his chair with his feet on the table and flipping through the other documents he’d stolen from the Doctor’s office.

Jeff finally growled and yanked the pencil out of his brother’s hand to scrawl something across the top of the page. Liu raised an eyebrow. “...fine. Should I bother asking for a middle name too?”

“Did we ever figure out how to explain the demonic red eye thing?” Because Masky was bigger than him and why the hell not, he grabbed Jeff as he stalked by and wrangled the angry boy onto his lap. Arms pinned to his side, Jeff hissed in a very similar fashion to a pissed off cat and tried to squirm free. “You are so cute when you’re ups- FUCK.”

“You deserved that,” Eyeless shook his head. He picked up Boy and set him on a corner of the table before trying to help. He jammed his thumb deep into the corner of Jeff’s jaw and pried his teeth out of Masky’s neck.

No blood, but Masky was going to have a hell of a bruise.

“MEDIC!” 

“Shut up Toby!”


	9. Carnival

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More Before-Hogwarts cause the Pastas with a tiny child are just fun.

“Remind me why the fuck we’re here again..?”

“He needs to know how to act around normal people.”

“Normal people.”

“Yeah.”

“It’s a fucking carnival.”

“Yeah well, we make do with what we have. At least it means we won’t get lynched. Especially your cranky ass.”

Jeff scowled at the brightly lit, incredibly noisy, people-crammed field of carnival oddities. Feeling Boy get wiggly, he dug his fingers harder into the five-year old’s shoulders. 

“I am going to eat so much cotton candy,” Toby cackled. The bright lights of the various rides and strings of colored bulbs glinted off his goggles. Before he could run off-

Masky grabbed him by the back of his coat. “Ground rules first.”

Toby whined. 

Eyeless held up a finger, “one, no one goes off alone. Two, no killing.’

Liu exchanged a glance with BEN. They both looked at Jeff.

“Three, unless you want to explain to Slender Man why we have to move again, you won’t cause any trouble or chaos. Toby.”

“Hey!”

There was a pause among the group, as the various youths braced themselves. It was a carnival, the traveling kind with hastily set up booths and fried food.There was a reasonably sized Ferris Wheel, a mini roller coaster, some sort spinning and waving thing that looked vaguely like an octopus.

It was evening and late and people were dressed up in all sorts of weird things.. The Proxies shouldn’t stand out too badly. Hopefully. 

Aaaaand there went Toby. Masky and Hoody chased after him because someone had to keep him in check and might as well be them. “COTTON CANDY!”

Boy wiggled again, tugging on Jeff’s sleeves. After considering it for a moment, Jeff sighed. “Let’s get this fucking over with.”

Yet again, Laughing Jack was the one to stay home for a handful of reasons. One, he was a seven foot tall clown and highly rememberable, for two there would be far too many small children running around with handfuls of sweets.

But that was okay. Boy had won, through some serious trial and error, a plush purple hippo for Laff to make up for not going.

Toby had cotton candy in his hair. 

Jeff spent a fortune on tickets to get on the Ferris Wheel and then refused to get off. As per rule number one, he kidnapped Eyeless and they spent the rest of the evening in peace and out of reach of the crowd.

Which of course left it up to Liu and BEN to take Boy around the carnival. 

Liu didn’t.. hate it. He might have even smiled. And only an asshole would refuse a gift from a small child, even if it was a goldfish trapped in a small plastic bag. He did not name it Sully.


	10. History of Magic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Too long to be a snapshot, but this was originally ch 22 for the Heir of Slytherin (y'all might remember it being posted for a day or two). I cleaned it up to see if I could still use it, because I really liked a few points that came up, but sadly it just didn't fit after the re-write. Ah well. It likely happened at some point during the year.
> 
> Neville goes poking through Harry's current sketchbook while everyone sleeps through History of Magic.

Harry was a comfortable weight against his side, cheek pressed to Neville’s shoulder. Nearly everyone took a nap during History of Magic, so it wasn’t all that strange, but admittedly most students didn't cuddle up to their desk partners. Or carry a teeny tiny snake in their hair who had the funniest whistling snores herself. 

Neville knew what it looked like, he truly did, he just couldn’t be bothered by it. After the lecture from this morning, he might have even encouraged it in a fit of contrariness. What right did McGonagall have to say who he could be friends with?

The only people not asleep (or zoned out so hard they might as well have been asleep) was Hermione with her diligent note-taking, and Hannah whispering with Susan over a book of hair care. 

And Neville, of course. 

His reason to stay awake was because this was just about the only time he could filch Harry’s sketchbook to leisurely flip through the pages, without getting it snatched back or rushed past the more interesting stuff. 

It was like getting a peek inside Harry’s brain, complete with all the little things he tried so hard to downplay. Mutilated hands with exposed muscle and bone, carefully highlighted with bits of red ink. Dogs with nightmarish grins and bright eyes. Eyeballs, bones, spiders, strange symbols that made Neville’s eyes ache if he looked at them too long.

He paid most attention to the people. There weren’t many, and half of them were just bits and pieces peeking out from behind other doodles. The ones Neville could find were fascinating, and after a while Neville could start to pick out which were recurring figures and which were random students. A broad shouldered man wearing a mask, a clown who’s long nose reminded Neville a bit of Professor Snape, and a teenager with goggles that was easily the one who always picked Harry up at the train station.

The one Neville found most often was also the most hidden, behind long hair or hoods or drawn from behind. More attention was paid to the knife the figure carried than their face, and Neville was impatiently waiting for Harry to cough up a proper portrait instead of hints. They had to be someone important to appear so often.

Neville froze as Harry shifted against him. When the Badger settled back down to finish his nap, Neville let out a slow breathe. 

He could see why Harry got anxious about his sketchbook, some pages would have churned the stomach of a lesser person with the amount of loving detail paid to exposed entrails and a particularly violent portrayal of Ron hanging from a noose. Now there was an idea, Neville snorted. That reminded him..

Blaise had asked, during another round of Harry playing with the Slytherin Quidditch team, “what do you think he sees when he looks at us?”

“What?”

“Surely you’ve noticed? They way he watches people, like they’re some newly discovered creature. That split second of indecision before he reacts to a comment. I’ve noticed that sometimes he waits to see how you’ve responded, before doing so himself, as if he’s not sure what would be found acceptable. He was quite the wild little thing in our first year was he not? You’ve.. Grounded him somehow.”

It was comments like that, that kept Neville from warming up to Blaise. He was polite and helpful to Harry’s face and then later talked as if Harry was something other than human. Acting as if Neville would agree with him.

Typical Slytherin double-talk. 

Neville hated him. 

He shrugged off the conversation as he turned the pages to find the most recent doodles. Hah. A whole series of dangerous plants with teeth and barbs and tight coils squeezing the life out of a victim. All of them fairly normal plants that could be found in the Greenhouse but with their more dangerous aspects amplified to a gory degree.

It made Neville smile because while Harry might not act like a typical Wizard, he was exactly like a Fanged Geranium. Temperamental, likely to bite if you got too close, and might have started a war. Kinda pretty. If you don’t pay a fanged Geranium enough attention they sulked for days. They needed sunshine to blossom, but too much and they’d wilt away into whimpering heaps. 

Dead useful in a scarce handful of potions, but otherwise just nice to have around.

Neville had heard of a gardener that taught her Geraniums to bark in synchronized patterns but.. Uh.. Harry was completely and utterly tone deaf. He had been thoroughly banned from ever joining the Choir club by none other than Professor Flitwick.

Geraniums were also very territorial over their pots.

“That’s mine,” Harry grumbled into his shoulder. 

“I’m not going to run off with it. And I don’t see why you’re so secretive about it, not like this is going to be the thing that finally makes me run away screaming. They’re just pictures.”

Harry muttered something low and hissy, then yawned and rubbed his face against Neville’s shoulder before sitting upright. “Aren’t we done yet?”

“Almost. ‘Nother ten minutes. Did you know Mimi snores?”

And there was that slightly besotted look Harry got on his face when thinking about his baby snake. “She’s so cute. I can’t wait till she can start setting things on fire.”

“I don’t think she’ll be allowed here when she gets to that part.” Being an unlisted creature, someone obviously had had to get permission for her to be at Hogwarts at all, and likely the teachers were keeping a close eye. Snape must have been tricked into it, there was no way in hell he would have agreed to such a favor for _Harry_.

Neville could tolerate Blaise for a little while longer.

Harry flapped a hand at him. “Eh. Bridges will be burned when we get to them. God I’m fucking starving. Can we go yet?”

Neville shrugged a shoulder. Binns never seemed to wrap up his lectures, he just sort of kept going on and on and on and on… when they were lucky, the students walked into the class with him droning about something they were supposed to be learning.

Harry rolled his eyes. He grabbed for his sketchbook and missed as Neville moved it away. “Dammit Nev!”

“I’m still looking!”

“It’s my fucking book!”

“And? You’ve been losing your books left and right lately, what’s one more?”

Harry honest-to-gods growled at the reminder of Tom.. 

“Boys…” Hannah whispered her warning. 

Harry looked back over his shoulder, to see her holding a finger up to her lips. Oh yeah. They were still in class. Fucking tedious.. Harry slid down in his seat to wait out the handful of minutes, sulking at Neville’s triumphant grin and theft of his goddamn sketchbook. 

Neville tucked it away into his satchel, keeping it to the far side away from Harry just in case the Badger got tempted to nick it back. 

“What’re we doing for lunch?”

Harry refused to answer, slouched so low in his seat now that he was practically laying down. He stuck his lower lip out and settled into his sulk with determination and spite.

Neville tried not to laugh, the image of a sullen Fanged Geranium flashing through his mind. While he had no mice on hand to lure Harry into a better mood-he did have a cookie in his pocket. He waggled the chocolate-chip sweet at the Hufflepuff.

The smile slipped through Harry’s sulk much as he tried to suppress it. “That’s cheating.”

“No, it’s bribery. Very different.”

Harry eyed the cookie a moment longer than snatched it from Neville’s hand, just as the bells chimed to signal the end of class. Students jerked upright and sleepily collected their things as Harry bit into the treat. “Fine. Keep the stupid book.”

Neville still kept a hand over the flap of his school bag, juuust in case. And walked around to Harry’s other side as the Badger tried to stay on his right. Cookie or no cookie, he didn’t trust Harry to not try and get the sketchbook back.


	11. Rise of the Brat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The baby is growing so fast.

“No!”

“Excuse me?”

“Nooooooo!”

“I don’t fucking recall asking for your opinion! Go to bed!”

“Fuck you!”

You could have heard a pin drop. Even the video game got paused so BEN could turn to look down at the smallest proxy. 

It wasn’t the first time Boy had cursed, he’d been doing that for years now, but this was the first time he’d cursed at one of the older boys, much less Jeff. Everyone was deeply interested to see what was going to happen now that he had.

“What the fuck did you just say?”

Boy hesitated. He was sitting on the floor near the couch with a bunch of papers and handful of markers, the five year old happily draining the set dry of all shades of red. “..I don’t want to go to fucking bed?” was his more cautious response. 

Jeff crooked a finger at him, the Killer feeling too lazy to actually get up. 

Moving very slowly and very reluctantly, Boy dragged his feet closer. “No one else is going to bed! Bedtimes are for fucking babies!” There was a snicker from higher up followed by a yelp as they were pushed off the back of the couch all together.

Jeff caught him Boy by the front of his shirt and pulled him closer so that they were nose to nose. “Swear at me again and I’ll kick your fucking ass. Now do as I fucking say and go the fuck to sleep.” 

Boy didn’t get off with just that of course, Jeff thwapped him upside the head roughly, making him yelp. The five year old sulked as he collected his art supplies, stomping across the stone floor towards the hallway. He stopped for a moment and looked as if he was debating something.. 

Turning back towards the group of lazy teenagers, Boy took in a deep breath and shouted “you fucking suck!” before sprinting out of sight. 

“Sassy little fucker isn’t he?” Jeff was too amused to be annoyed. Sure, he could get up and beat the snot out of the brat for talking back.. but what was the point of that? Willfulness and stubbornness and a complete disregard for the rules was the backbone of their little family. 

“Gunna punish him?”

“Nah. He’ll punish himself by waiting for me to, it’ll be fucking hilarious.”


	12. Christmas-ish

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Boy is back from school for Christmas, that's.. pretty much it. Too short for any real spoilers.

Masky looked at the mountain of Christmas presents and sighed. 

Toby had outdone himself, again. The amount of wrapping paper used on the horde of boxes and bags and lumpy objects had surely caused the destruction of a forest or two. The ribbons, the glitter, the name tags.. 

Masky sighed again. “You start on the left and I’ll take the right…?”

Liu snorted but started shifting through the festive mess. His socks were in the spirited mood at least, one red and one green with HO HO HO across the soles. It was really too cold to be wandering the crumbling castle in just socks but until he found his boots Liu was stuck.

Chucking aside bundles too small or too light, Masky was hunting for his mask. He’d woken up and found it missing from the headboard, and being this time of year that had meant only one thing - Toby.

Only a handful of the presents were actually gifts, books or scarves or something small, the rest were boots and masks and knives and tools. Anything that Toby found unattended. 

Everything that Toby found unattended.

A canvas bag tied shut with a giant red bow hissed irritably.

Smiledog padded in now, ears against his head and growling. He snuffled around the tree before lifting his leg up and-

“Don’t you dare.”

Smiledog growled again and put his leg down. Ten minutes later, Boy came by to complain that Toby had stolen his homework, quickly hiring Smiley to find the package with the promise of a candybar for each item successfully found.

“Damn dog is going to get fat..” Masky muttered but resigned himself to buying a whole bag of chocolates next time he was in town if it meant he got his mask back sooner rather than later. 

Oh, there’s where the nailgun had gone.


	13. Getting to Know Baby

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Masky babysits.

Masky waggled a chip at the little thing temptingly.

It was cute in the way half-starved kittens were cute, and just as stupidly tiny.

He kept expecting it to reach out and swipe at him with teeny tiny claws and that would’ve been both hilarious and irritating because kitten claws were even sharper than cat claws being that they were so much smaller. Like teeny tiny needles.

The toddler peered out suspiciously from under the make-shift-table-that-was-actually-a-crate, before reaching to take the snack. 

Piece by piece Masky was winning it over. The Baby liked Jeff well enough, and Eyeless by association. Toby had been deemed alright since the firework incident, not that Toby was allowed to be alone with it since that same incident. The rest of them were watched carefully and from a distance.

Masky could get that, they were strangers after all. And the thing hadn’t been treated that well by the looks of it. 

Aaaand he really should stop thinking of it as an ‘it’. And ‘thing’. It was family now so it- he was now the littlest Proxy and needed to be looked after. 

A baby Proxy.. Christ. Sally hadn’t been a Proxy and she’d been much older. Didn’t make a lick of sense to Masky, but Slender was keeping his thoughts quiet on the matter other than a faint buzz of interest in the back of Masky’s mind. But he could wait it out. He was a patient guy.

Well.. when compared to the rest of the clan that is.

Huddled under the table with a sharpie and handful of blank papers clutched to his chest, the Baby had until now been safely tucked out of the way of things. The castle was cool to look at, but a nightmare to make livable. Generators, power cords, removing all the bird nests and birds out of the chimneys..

Toby with power tools in general was scary. Jeff with a sledgehammer was terrifying. 

But since this was the driest room in the castle and thus the chosen Game Room, BEN needed the space to set up the tv and all it’s accessories. That meant the Baby needed to be relocated for a while. No one wanted a crispy baby in the family tree.

Masky just needed to get close enough to grab him. Again. Brat had some seriously sharp teeth on him, which is why Masky was trying to bribe him out from under the table with snacks.

“Come on little guy, let’s be friends. I’ve got food, you’ve got an empty belly. Let’s work this out.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> .
> 
>  
> 
> Still alive! AND working on part three. Not sure when I'll start posting chapters but it IS being worked on. And if things go the way they started, it's going to be massive. Not sure how I feel about this, but.. eh. We'll see what happens in the next few weeks.
> 
> <3


	14. Nailed It

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Near the end of Book Two, some Second Year silliness.
> 
> I forgot had I had this, lol. Was cleaning up my doc. files and found it again. I don't remember what chapter it was going to go in, somewhere around 25 or so?

“Call me crazy, but I kind of thought you’d be throwing a fit about something like this.”

“Eh. It’s shiny.”

Hannah giggled but didn’t look up from carefully painting Harry’s nails candy-apple red. The nails on his left hand were a bright, poisonous green so Ernie supposed she was trying to match his eyes. Still…

“Isn’t it kind of… girlish?”

“Says who?”

“Err… everyone?”

“And you expect _me_ to do what everyone fucking says to do?” Harry growled. 

Ah. He was in one of those moods. Ernie couldn’t fault the sour glare, ever since Harry had supposedly killed the monster of Slytherin, people had been a bit twitchier than normal around him. The Slytherins were wavering between anger and fear, because Harry had killed the thousand year old pet of their beloved house, and had done it _all by himself_.

The Lions were being loud about how this proved Harry was using dark magics. Because if a band of well-experienced teachers could neither find nor remove the beast, than how had Harry? Their pet theory was that Neville was the one who had killed the snake, after discovering Harry telling it to go attack more students. 

(Funny enough, Hermione was heard saying loudly and often that SHE had known it was a basilisk, it was so obvious if people would just do proper research!)

Ernie didn’t have many friends among the Ravens like Susan did, but they seemed to have washed their hands of the whole thing. If it had been a basilisk, if it had been the cause of the petrifications, then everything was fine and dandy and they could get back to work. If not, then the rumor mill had once again blown things out of proportion and all Harry had done was kill some poor random snake and likely a very small one.

The Hufflepuffs were once again standing their ground and keeping an eye on their smallest Badger, while at the same time keeping their distance. “Careful, he bites..” Ernie heard an older student mutter to some curious First Years. Jokingly of course, Harry had never bitten anyone that Ernie knew of, though it wasn’t an entirely inappropriate comment considering...

A grumpy Harry was a very snappish Harry. A snappish Harry with pretty nails. 

“What Ernie means to say,” Susan sniffed, “is that it’s not currently fashionable for Wizards to paint their nails. I think that makes you a trendsetter.”

“I dunno, with all the pretty ribbons you keep braiding into his hair, people are going to start getting ideas.”

“Oh goodie, more ideas from the fucking peanut gallery. I’ll just wait with bated breath to hear their new ideas.”

Ernie exchanged a glance with Roger and decided now was not the time to ask about what peanuts had anything to do with a gallery. Pursing his lips together, Ernie made a sharp nod of decision. “Will you do mine next? Something less… flashy perhaps?”

“ _Really_?” Hannah’s squeal of excitement was alarming, and Ernie almost took back his request. 

“Yeah. We Hufflepuffs stick together right? So let’s show some solidarity. Right Roger?”

“Uhh…” 

“I’ll do Roger’s while Hannah does yours,” Susan wasted no time at all by sitting down at the table and patting the chair next to hers. “Come on Roger! How About a nice light yellow?”

Going by the twitching of Harry’s mouth, the silliness was working and his foul mood was fading fast. Hannah blew on his nails one more time, and declared “they look dry, but just to be safe you shouldn’t touch anything for another half hour.”

Susan picked out a light, translucent yellow from Hannah’s makeup kit with- “see? You’ll barely know it’s there!” 

Roger glared at them but he knew when he was beat. “You are all terrible people."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> .
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> Fingers crossed, within the next week or two I'll be posting the first chapter to book three. Here's hoping!


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